T-Mobile Pulse mobes still don't do 3G

Cheapo Android handset out in the cold

T-Mobile's UK customers using the network's own Pulse Mini handset are finding 3G is an impossibility, despite a week of complaints.

The Pulse Mini is a diminutive Android handset made by Huawei and available for a hundred nicker on pay-as-you-go. But some buyers attracted to the cut-price smartphone have been disappointed to find it dropped off T-Mobile's 3G network with no apparent fix except a change of network.

The problems surfaced last week on the T-Mobile forums: users complaining that the handset would just become unable to connect over 3G, forcing them to spend extensive periods on the phone to technical support (universally described as polite, but unable to help) with only a change of network providing a reliable fix.

Last week T-Mobile assured us there was no problem, and that it would speak to the forum users to discover what they were on about. Forum users were then informed that there had been a problem, but that it was now fixed and they only need to reboot their phones to get a reliable 3G signal.

We've asked T-Mobile about the apparent contradiction here, and we're still waiting to hear back.

Not that the problem has disappeared, some Pulse Mini users are still reporting that T-Mobile's 3G network remains closed to them no matter how many times the universally-polite technical support send configuration messages.

Pay-as-you-go customers are notoriously fickle, and the forums are replete with messages from those who've found connectivity elsewhere without problem. Branded handsets are supposed to engender network loyalty, but this time it seems T-Mobile is just reminding people that it's the phone they've bought and the service can come from anywhere. ®